I'm currently on a free-trial for high speed internet (but we've had it for like 5 months now, they've upgraded their service), anyways once the trial ends, we're gonna sign up for it no doubt, and we coincidentally get a free wireless router . Lucky for me since mine was broken the day I bought it. GTA:LCS and Socom Fireteam Bravo, HERE I COME!!

GTA: Liberty City Stories: Frank Vincent Speaks
A little chat with Don Salvatore himself. Plus, we unload a couple of new movies.
by Juan Castro
October 7, 2005 - In Hollywood, an actor relies on a multitude of techniques to convince audiences that he (or she) is a real character. Not so in the world of videogames. Most of the time, an actor playing a character in a videogame can only rely on his/her voice. Still, it doesn't make the job any easier. On the contrary, to convince gamers that a polygonal model is a real character takes a degree of talent.

Something Frank Vincent knows all too well. As the voice of Don Salvatore in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Frank Vincent relies on his experience as an actor to lend Don Salvatore the kind of mojo the job requires. Having worked in films such as Goodfellas and the television show The Soprano's, Frank Vincent has all the experience a digital actor needs.
Scroll down to read an internal interview with the man behind Don Salvatore.

You have a long history with working on Grand Theft Auto as playing the much loved character Don Salvatore Leone. How did you first get involved with working with the Grand Theft Auto Series?

FRANK VINCENT: I really don't remember how it started; it's been kind of late. Do you know how long it's been since they did the first one?

Four or Five years ago

FV: I remember I was at the US Open and I was watching the game. I got a call from my manager who told me that they were interested in me for doing the voice over. I think that's how it started...if I can remember that far back! I can't even remember two weeks ago!

Were you surprised to be invited to do a voice for a video game, of all things?

FV: Yeah, I didn't know too much about video games at that point, not that I know too much about them now. But I'm a working actor and work is work. I was interested to know what it was about. We talked about it, so I did it. The reaction I got from it was incredible since a lot of people play those games. I'm sure you know that.

You have worked on three Grand Theft Auto games so far, what's the experience been like for you?

FV: It's voiceover work and it's a different kind of acting than being on camera, obviously. It's been terrific. I was looking forward to every time to each new game, to see if Don Salvatore's role got bigger. And it did. He's one of the lead characters. I'm flattered by it and that my voice is his voice.

Frank Vincent

Have you had a lot of response from fans of your Grand Theft Auto character?

FV: I do a lot of meet-and-greets with the people and I do "sign shows" where I meet people and sign autographs. I was in Florida at a film festival the first time I got a reaction; if I remember correctly. We were in Sarasota at a big party after the screenings, and somebody came up to me with the game.

I don't think I'd even seen it up until that point. And he had the disc and showed it to me. He showed me the billing, and my name was the first name on it. Then I signed the game and that was the beginning. People come up to me all the time saying, "I love the game." The irony is that I've never played it.

When doing the voice of Salvatore, where did you initially draw inspiration from?

FV: More or less, I get it from the writing. The writing's a little tongue-and-cheeky. When you're acting on camera, you're acting in a very "reality" mode. This is like, not reality because they actually play you the figures, the people, the characters and the way they're recording it. It's a weird process actually, and you hear them talking...the figures you play. The inspiration comes out of the writing I would say, just as far as how I deliver the material. That's the only way I can analyze it.

How do you compare doing the voice of Salvatore to other mob wise guys you have played over the years?

FV: Again, we go back to the different techniques involved in doing voiceovers and acting on camera. When you're acting on camera, you don't really think of your voice. You think of the whole instrument - your body, your look, and whatever you have to do. But when you're doing the voiceover, you're thinking only of your voice. You really can't compare the two different mediums. I work on television and I work in film, and the acting is two different things. I also work on radio. But voiceovers are a completely different package. I don't think I can make a comparison for the two.

Did you do the recording for all three games at the same location? What was the process like? What was the best thing about it?

FV: I think we did the first one someplace else, in a different studio. And I think we did the last two - San Andreas and Liberty City - at Rockstar.

I know that they're English guys and they really, really flattered me and treated me with a lot of respect. It's nice to get that respect from the people you're working with and the producers who I've worked with as well. They really treated me great and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Salvatore Leone is a cigar smoking, gun toting Don of a major crime family. Do you relate to Sal at all? How close is your personality to Sal's? Do you find yourself attached to Sal after all these years?

FV: Well, I'm a cigar smoking Don, but I don't tote the gun though. I hate to tell everybody this, but I'm really not like that at all. I enjoy going to the beach, relaxing with my wife, going out to dinner, and having a good time. I guess in my early ears, I was more of a Don Salavtore than I am now. But I'm just relaxing now and having a good time. You always get attached to the things you do. I mean, I'd recognize him anywhere if I saw him, I'm sure.
Is Salvatore Leone the most powerful mobster you have played? Is he the most senior? Is it different playing the boss to playing wise-guys?

FV: He's the most powerful I've ever played with my voice. And he is the most senior, yes. Oh yeah, when you're playing an underling, you have to take orders. And when you're playing the boss, you give the orders. That's all. I'm playing a boss now on Sopranos so I'm having a good time doing that.

Growing up, you found yourself involved in several of the arts from drumming to acting. What do you think about videogames? How do you think video games have matured as an art form?

FV: Having done it all, I played music for years and I have my own website, FrankVincent.com. I have a book coming out in March called "A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man". I did a lot of rap videos and now I'm doing video games. I think video games have come a long, long way and they reach a zillion people. I think it's great to be part of it and I really love it.

You are best known as a character actor for your work in projects like Grand Theft Auto, Goodfellas and the Sopranos. Are there any other sorts of roles you enjoy or are looking forward to playing?

FV: Well, I have a film coming out now called a "Tale of Two Pizzas" which premieres in New York on October 7th. I play a pizza parlor owner, opposite Vincent Pastore. It's a cute little movie, a comedy. I play Jennifer Aniston's father in another movie called "Shes the One", from Eddie Burns. I enjoy doing comedy movies a lot.

GTA: Liberty City Stories Interview
How did they cram all that stuff into one UMD? The secret revealed.

October 14, 2005 - Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a particularly huge game. The fact that it's on a handheld system borders on miraculous. Naturally, we wanted to know how Rockstar North, in conjunction with Rockstar Leeds, managed to pull it off. Below, find an interview with Gordon Hall from Rockstar Leeds, the man with all the answers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is your second PSP game after Midnight Club 3. How has it been working with the PSP hardware the second time around, is the team more comfortable with it?

Gordon Hall: So far it's been a lot of fun. The team here had been working primarily on GBA games, our last one was Max Payne for GBA. Moving into a true 3D realm and getting to work AAA franchises like Midnight Club and Grand Theft Auto has been stellar. The PSP is really a magnificent piece of kit, it does things none of us believed possible when we first saw the specifications.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a massive game to cram onto the system. How did you get all the audio, textures and scripting onto the 1.8GB UMD?

GH: Lots of hard work and attention to detail. Every asset in the game had to be trimmed to the bare essentials. The team at Rockstar North has been involved every step of the way and they had some very clever compression techniques they'd used in Vice city and San Andreas that the team here heavily optimized for PSP in order to get all the various assets onto the disc. Without the code there would have been no way for us to get 10 full radio stations in the game with everything else.

Data streaming has long been a technique used in the Grand Theft Auto series. Were there any changes made to decrease reliance on streaming in Liberty City Stories?

GH: There were some fundamental changes to the way streaming is accomplished to minimise the reliance on the disk. With the help of Rockstar North, we painstakingly organized data on the disk such that the game can pull off information in chunks. The actual streams are pulled in bursts, allowing us to only spin up the disc occasionally.

A big concern about streaming is of course battery life. How has that turned out?

GH: You're exactly right, that was our main concern. If it weren't for the battery we could have used all the old streaming code and the game would have played great for a very short period of time. With the final, fully optimized streaming code, playing singleplayer in the way we know stresses the system the most, we are getting over 4 hours on a freshly charged new PSP. There are all kinds of variables that will affect that result: backlight level, overall battery condition, temperature (really!), wifi, etc. We are extremely happy with that result considering all the hard work the team here in Leeds and the team in Scotland put into it. Hopefully you will be too.

Now that multiplayer is out there's all kinds of things we'd love for you elaborate on. Are there any particularly cool technical aspects you could share with us? Why six players?

GH: Six players seems to be the sweet spot for us. It's enough players that you can get some seriously good competition going on and split into teams that are more than just two players each. On the other hand it's also a good number for us to implement multiplayer without having to sacrifice the things that make Grand Theft Auto great: an open, living world in a city that is populated by pedestrians, traffic and other ambient life. Any more than 6 and we would have had to pull those aspects of the game, a compromise we weren't willing to make.

The framerate is amazing considering the amount happening onscreen. Any insight into how you accomplished that?

GH: The engineers here and in Scotland spent a lot of time rewriting a brand new engine specifically for the PSP. While that was going on we had an entire team working on creating all new assets for Liberty City. The secret seems to be not just retooling assets from another version of a game, you have to really get in there and start over from the ground floor. Combining a brand new engine with PSP specific assets allowed us to keep console style Grand Theft Auto action playable at around 30 frames per second with full draw-distance and ped/traffic density. [/img]

Wow great find Fman, i applaud you. i cant wait to get my mits on this game now.

UPDATE.
after rumaging around the attic, i found the original copy of the bible.... wich was nice.

Not really but i found out some news and clips on the GTA Liberty city stories web site regarding the radio stations, i dont think its real music, however dont let that get you down, i think the whole radio will be filled with jokes any how. But more then likley it will feature music circa 1998, like Run DMC Vs Jason nevins a smash hit back then.

heres the radio stations i found out.

HEAD Radio (Rock) with Mike hunt (sorry its Michal Hunt, no pun intended you know what rockstar is like LMAO)
RISE fm (House) with Andre the acelerator and Resident DJ Boy Sanchez
Electron Zone Radio (Talk, Computing and masturbating) with Steve
Lips 106 (Terrible Pop music) With Cliff and Andee

thats all i could squeeze from the website. Stay tuned for moe as its fastly approcahing.

GTA: Liberty City Stories
We take a look at some of the game's fashion conscious extras. New details and screens included.

October 17, 2005 - There is a wide range of different outfits available to Toni Cipriani throughout Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. Sometimes certain clothing will be needed to complete certain missions, the rest of the time Toni is free to dress as he pleases. Completing specific missions will make more outfits available.

Casual

Toni returns to Liberty City dressed in his casual clothes. In the beginning of the game the casual clothes will need to be worn if Toni wants to stay incognito amongst the gangs of Liberty City.

Leone suit

Show some respect for the Don and dress smart for Chrissake. The classic look for the Leone Family member, a hand-made silk suit tailored in Portland. They only come in one color, but hey…who'd want anything else. Toni may have to change out of his suit if he needs to blend into his surroundings and avoid drawing the attention of some of Liberty City's other criminal organizations.

Goodfellas

There's no better ensemble for looking good while wasting Sindacco footsoldiers. The ladies in Toni's life love him in this sleek, sharp look. Except for his mother, of course, who wishes he'd dress more like his father used to dress.

Antonio

A more casual look for relaxed days, this outfit is named after Toni's proper name. Only one person is allowed to call him Antonio, and that is his dear mother. Anyone else would get the back of his hand. The perfect outfit to enjoy some of Ma's Italian food, this is also the outfit that Toni himself likes to cook in.

Sweats

After eating all that high-calorie food, this is the perfect outfit to relax that waistband. A head to toe jogging suit is part of any self-respecting Italian gangster's wardrobe. This suit is particularly good-looking because its azure hue brings out the steely blue flecks in Toni's eyes.

Liberty City Stories: The Sidemissions
There's far more in Liberty City than a life of crime.
by Juan Castro

October 21, 2005 -

A day in Liberty City isn't complete without trying out some of the many new and classic side missions and jobs found around the three boroughs of Portland, Staunton and Shoreside Vale. These missions can be a great way of earning some extra hard cold cash, unlocking secret items and bonuses and exploring the diversity of what Liberty City has to offer. These side gigs are perfect for spending some quick "pick up and play" quality time in Liberty City.

You've seen them walking the streets, patrolling and keeping the neighborhood safe, working to put an end to violence on the streets of Liberty City. The Angels always work in pairs, so watch out for your fellow Angels when you go cleaning up the city. Walk right up to any Avenging Angel and press UP on the d-pad.

SCOOTER SHOOTER

There's no better way to work out some aggression than hopping into this side mission. Toni and his friendly scooter driver have to take out as many targets as possible within three minutes. He drives, Toni shoots with a Tec-9 with unlimited ammo. Wreak havoc on targets within the city; get as many as you can before time expires.

BIKE SALESMAN

Even the sexiest machines on the street need a little salesmanship to convince a nervous buyer. Show the customer exactly what that machine is capable of, but only show off the kind of ride they're looking for! How well can you read people? Figure it out and you'll set them free from the cage??? and make a little money for yourself at the same time.

SEE THE SIGHTS BEFORE YOUR FLIGHT

Stop on by Francis International Airport in Shoreside Vale, watch some of Liberty City's many tourists take off for their home after visiting The Worst Place in America. Some of these tourists want to get one more photo snap before their visit is over, and Toni can make sure that it's an unforgettable experience. Get a picture of the tourist in front of their favorite landmark, but make sure to get them back in time for their flight! Quality counts, great snapshots will be rewarded with extra cash. If only those pesky muggers would leave you alone to get the shot…

INSANE STUNT JUMPS

You must be crazy not to try some of these insane stunt jumps in Liberty City. Using the unique speed of the PCJ600 and other new vehicles you can now soar over the many ramps, hills and jumps found around Liberty City. Build up speed as you careen down the steep side streets, launching yourself to unbelievable heights while gaining some monetary funds while you're tearing up the tar.

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